Armed with Science | Tag Archive

End of an Era: STS-135 Atlantis Landing

Filed under Earth Sciences, Space, Technology by Carla Voorhees on July 21, 2011 at 11:35 am {one comment}

Katherine Winters on the Weather Console

Kathy Winters is an Air Force Civilian Meteorologist at the 45th Weather Squadron at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. She is the Space Shuttle Launch Weather Officer providing weather support to the Space Shuttle Program at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) as the Launch Team prepares for the 21 July 2011 landing of Atlantis. You can find out more about the 45th Space Wing at their Facebook page.

Atlantis landed at Kennedy Space Center this morning. The weather was perfect!

Sometimes weather can cause the Shuttle to land at Edwards Air Force Base, California. In this case, the Shuttle team immediately starts preparing the vehicle for a Ferry Flight. This mission was not the last chance for a Ferry Flight—Ferry Flights will also take Endeavour and Discovery to their designated static display locations once they are prepared.

Space shuttle Atlantis lands for the final time at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Photo credit: NASA TV

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End of an Era: While Atlantis is On Orbit, Tropical Storm Bret Develops

Filed under Earth Sciences, Space, Technology by Carla Voorhees on July 20, 2011 at 9:40 am {no comments}

Katherine Winters on the Weather Console

While Atlantis is on orbit, the 45th Weather Squadron is keeping busy. In fact, Tropical Storm Bret formed approximately 170 nautical miles offshore Sunday, July 17. Bret is in a somewhat unfavorable environment for intensifying, and meteorological models are in good agreement that Bret will move off to the northeast, away from the Florida Space Coast, luckily!

The 45th Weather Squadron is monitoring Tropical Storm Bret off the Florida Coast north of the Bahamas. Source: National Hurricane Center Website http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/goes/flt/t1/flash-vis.html

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End of an Era: USAF Enables Trauma Rescue for Shuttle Missions

Filed under Space, Technology by Carla Voorhees on July 15, 2011 at 1:00 pm {no comments}

Lt. Col. Lars Ulissey is a United States Air Force Flight Surgeon and Chief of Bioastronautics, at the 45th Space Wing, Patrick Air Force Base, Florida. Previously he has been a family medicine physician, and was a pilot and VP 44 Patrol Plane Commander in the US Navy. He was awarded USAF Flight Surgeon of the Year in 2006 (AFMC) and 2010 (AFSPC).

Lt. Col. Lars Ulissey

Detachment 3, of the 45th Operations Group at Patrick Air Force Base, is home to the Human Space Flight Support office, which functions as a direct link between NASA and the Department of Defense (DOD). Among the many responsibilities of Det 3, one of the most important has been to provide contingency support for Space Shuttle operations. Flight surgeons and Air Force Pararescuemen (PJs) are critical elements of a rescue package that the US Air Force brings to each and every Shuttle mission. Flight Surgeons work in concert with Air Force PJs and the crew of H60 helicopters (Jollys), to form the cornerstone of the medical rescue effort, should a Space Shuttle mission go awry.

The Flight Surgeons are stationed one to each helicopter and paired with two PJs, who are members of the military’s elite Special Forces or Air Force’s Personnel Recovery experts. The unique feature about a PJ, is that in addition to his special survival capability, each is medically trained to the level of a civilian paramedic. The flight surgeons bring added dimension to the rescue effort, by placing an Advance Trauma Life Support (ATLS) trained physician at the scene of rescue, for real time intervention. The Flight Surgeon’s role on the Jolly is to integrate with the crew to help retrieve, stabilize, treat and transport the patient as expediently as possible to the most appropriate medical facility. This can range from transporting astronauts to a nearby NASA designated triage site, or to the nearest and most appropriate trauma hospital, based on injuries.

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End of an Era: Detachment 3 Provides Human Space Flight Support

Filed under STEM, Technology by Carla Voorhees on July 8, 2011 at 7:00 am {no comments}

Dennis C. Malbon watching the STS-121 launch

Dennis C. (Chris) Malbon (Lieutenant Colonel, ret.) supports the Space Shuttle mission in multiple capacities as MMT liaison officer, Support Operations Center Director, senior field training officer, primary interface for support budget projections and senior advisor to the Chief of the 45 Operations Group Human Space Flight Support (HSFS) office (formerly DDMS). During the 25+ years that Lt Colonel/Mr Malbon has been assigned to Det 3, 45 OG/HSFS, DDMS and Det 15, he has supported 118 Space Shuttle missions.

Detachment 3, 45 Operations Group is the office that coordinates DOD contingency support to our nation’s human space flight programs. Chartered in 1959 by the Secretary of Defense, the DOD Mercury Support Office and renamed later that year, the DOD Manned Space Flight Support Office (DDMS) was formed with the express purpose of providing DOD support to this nation’s manned space flight effort . . . putting people into space and returning them safely to Earth. Since those early days, the office has continued to be the focal point for all DOD contingency support to Projects Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, the Apollo/Soyuz Test Project; the Space Shuttle Program, the International Space Station (ISS)/Soyuz Program; NASA’s new Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle Program and commercial spacecraft that will transport NASA astronauts to the ISS. This support includes astronaut and space vehicle recovery, worldwide communications, logistics and medical support. (more…)

End of an Era: Final Weather Blog Before Launch

Filed under Earth Sciences, STEM, Technology by Carla Voorhees on July 7, 2011 at 4:48 pm {no comments}

Katherine Winters on the Weather Console

Kathy Winters is an Air Force Civilian Meteorologist at the 45th Weather Squadron at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. She is the Space Shuttle Launch Weather Officer providing weather support to the Space Shuttle Program at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) as the Launch Team prepares for the 8 July 2011 launch of Atlantis. You can find out more about the 45th Space Wing at their Facebook page.

Thursday, I was getting ready to write my last update before I left for the day when a close lightning strike occurred at the Shuttle Launch Pad. When we first get the data that a close lightning strike occurred, we aren’t really sure exactly where it hit. We can, however, give a pretty close estimate, and we also provide data that shows an ellipse in which we can give a 99% confidence the strike occurred within the ellipse. We can also give the probability the strike occurred within 0.45 nautical miles (nm) of the vehicle. In this case, the probability the lightning was within 0.45NM of the vehicle was 100%, so we knew we had a close strike. The ellipse is almost a circle because all 5 of our lightning sensors detected the strike. The photo shows where our Cloud–to-Ground Lightning Surveillance System detected the strike and how intense it was. We provide maps of this data to the launch team so they can determine if the strike impacted any systems. They use information from the lightning detection system at the launch pad as well as cameras around the launch pad to determine where the strike actually hit.

Cloud–to-Ground Lightning Surveillance System Display

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End of an Era: Weather Briefings and Communicating Uncertainty

Filed under Earth Sciences, Technology by Carla Voorhees on July 7, 2011 at 8:55 am {no comments}

Katherine Winters on the Weather Console

Kathy Winters is an Air Force Civilian Meteorologist at the 45th Weather Squadron at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. She is the Space Shuttle Launch Weather Officer providing weather support to the Space Shuttle Program at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) as the Launch Team prepares for the 8 July 2011 launch of Atlantis. You can find out more about the 45th Space Wing at their Facebook page.

We had two significant weather briefings Wednesday, 6 July: the 45th Space Wing Launch Readiness Review and the Shuttle Mission Management Team Launch minus 2-day meeting. Both meetings are essential to determine launch readiness, and weather is one piece of the large puzzle of things that must come together for launch. During these meetings, our squadron presents weather forecasts for the rotating service structure retract, tanking, solid rocket booster recovery, launch, plus 24- and 48- hour launch delay forecasts. Spaceflight Meteorology Group also presents the abort landing weather during the Shuttle Mission Management Team meeting. During the briefings, weather threats are highlighted so the Shuttle and Space Wing teams know what to expect. Sometimes NASA managers change the time of a pre-launch operation if the current schedule puts the launch countdown at risk for a weather delay, but the launch window itself is not modified since it is based upon the rendezvous with the International Space Station on-orbit.

Left to right, Kathy Winters, Shuttle Launch Weather Officer, Mike Leinbach, Shuttle Launch Director, and Mike Moses, Shuttle Launch Integration Manager, at the last mission’s L-2 day press conference. (Photo: KSC Public Affairs)

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End of an Era: The Role of Ascension Island in Shuttle Launches

Filed under Earth Sciences, Technology by Carla Voorhees on July 6, 2011 at 1:49 pm {no comments}

Major Ingrid C. Kaat is the commander of Detachment 2, 45 Operations Group, Ascension Auxiliary Airfield, Ascension Island, South Atlantic Ocean

We are designated as an Emergency Landing Site and we provide orbital tracking via radar.

There are many sites around the world designated as Emergency Landing Sites, and Detachment 2 at Ascension Island is one of those.

Should the Shuttle encounter an emergency and require landing at our location, my position would assume the role of Incident Commander, and serve as the conduit of information between Detachment 2 and NASA representatives.

The Fire and Security team bear the primary responsibility for dealing with any major incident. Their functions include setting up a convoy, establishing the toxic corridor and security perimeter, and assisting with astronaut egress after landing. Hazardous Materials and Medical Teams would also be called upon. The emergency response required after the landing is highly dependent on the condition of the orbiter and its team. Given the remote location and the relatively small size of Detachment 2, NASA would automatically generate a contingency response force to arrive within 24 hours. For the first 24 hours, the on-island response would indeed be international. We would potentially request medical and fire support from the Ascension Island Government and Royal Air Force.

Ascension Island, South Atlantic Ocean

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The End of an Era: Atlantis Launch Weather Outlook

Filed under Earth Sciences by Carla Voorhees on July 5, 2011 at 9:40 pm {one comment}

Katherine Winters on the Weather Console

Kathy Winters is an Air Force Civilian Meteorologist at the 45th Weather Squadron at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. She is the Space Shuttle Launch Weather Officer providing weather support to the Space Shuttle Program at Kennedy Space Center as the Launch Team prepares for the 8 July 2011 launch of Atlantis. You can find out more about the 45th Space Wing at their Facebook page.

It’s launch week and we are issuing our weather forecasts for the last Space Shuttle launch Friday, 8 July 2011. The weather situation is interesting. A tropical wave located over the Turks and Caicos Islands is moving west-northwest toward Florida. These waves are typical this time of year, and as they move into Florida, they bring scattered showers and isolated thunderstorms behind them. We expect this wave to move into Florida on Thursday, the day prior to launch, as it rotates around the western side of the high pressure ridge north of the Central Florida area. A tropical wave near the Turks and Caicos Islands will bring scattered showers and isolated thunderstorms to Florida Thursday. You can follow the development of the tropical wave in the Caribbean on the National Hurricane Center’s web site, tropical discussion.